Foreclosure filings hit their lowest since 2007 last year, as did the number of completed foreclosures, according to the CoreLogic Market National Foreclosure Report.
The latest trend is encouraging, as roughly 837,000 U.S. homes faced foreclosure during December 2013 versus nearly 1.2 million during the same time the year before. Nevertheless, many homeowners are still facing problems with making homes payments.
According to the report, the rate of delinquency among mortgages in the United States was at 5 percent during December 2013 - the lowest since November 2008. Experian-Oliver Wyman Market Intelligence Reports quarterly data and the IntelliView tool of Experian suggest that the share of delinquent mortgages were less during the period, too.
In 2013 Q4, there was a decline in the ratio of mortgages that were over 90 days due compared to the same period in 2012, as well as the 2013 Q3 levels. According to the report, the rate of delinquency dropped to 2.52 percent, lower by 2.74 percent for that in the 2012 Q4 and 3.26 percent during the corresponding period in 2011.
Anand Nallathambi, CoreLogic CEO and president, says that as far as residential properties in the United States are concerned, 2013 has been a transitional period. He said that elevated home prices and poorer levels of shadow inventory, coupled with a sluggishly improving economy, are encouraging signs. According to Nallathambi, while the progress will be very sluggish, the residential market will be healing throughout 2014.
Experian states that although the mortgage originations continued to increase on a year-over-year basis ever since 2012 Q1, the impetus was weak during 2013 Q3 following a drop in new loans by nearly 110,000 compared to that in 2012. Data regarding 2013 Q4 have yet to be made available.
Property values as well as the interest rates during the last many months have seen an overall increase and the lending landscape changed following new rules regarding qualified mortgages beginning of 2014.
